“You’re not a journalist, you’re a political activist”.
I’m on the phone to Simon Morrall, councillor for Frankley Great Park. He is not very happy.
“I'm being completely honest with you, I don't trust you, [...] I'm very confused about why you're doing a hit piece on me.”
I’m confused too, which is the reason I’ve phoned up Cllr Morrall in the first place. Recently at The Dispatch, we invited readers to send us their questions about Birmingham. Having already answered our first — ‘who lives in the city centre?’ — we thought it was time to take on another. And one subscriber posed an interesting line of inquiry.
“Why,” they asked, “is the Frankley Great Park councillor still in office, and possibly being lined up to stand for election in 2026, given he’s been convicted of harassment?”
The reader was referring to Simon Morrall, formerly a rising star in the Conservative party until he was suspended and had the whip removed in 2023, after being arrested and charged with stalking and harassment.
Cllr Morrall pleaded guilty to a single charge of harassment in January 2024 but remained in office — Birmingham City Council said his case didn’t meet the grounds for disqualification. On the council’s website, his party allegiance seemingly never wavered from ‘Conservative’. Now, a Dispatch reader had heard he was “possibly” being lined up for election. Was this true? Was Cllr Morrall back among his old flock?
We thought it worth looking into but presumed the story would be pretty cut and dried; gather a few statements here, hear from a few constituents there.
What actually transpired was a bizarre saga, involving an incensed phone call, counter-claims of “untrue allegations” and threats of legal action against his former party.
Still, Simon Morrall says he has been re-admitted into the Conservatives. Birmingham’s Conservatives seem less sure. So what’s going on?
Rise and fall
It’s just under nine months until all-out elections at Birmingham city council for 101 seats, with voters deciding who will represent them for the next four years. The council is famously Labour-led and has been since 2012. But dissatisfaction is growing and smaller parties are looking to challenge their dominance, as are the Conservatives. Currently the second biggest party in the council, their national wipeout in last year’s general election was a major blow. But at a local level, the Tories are hoping to win ground back.
Until last year, Simon Morrall was a great hope for Birmingham’s Conservatives. Young, handsome and politically gifted enough to cause an upset at his election in 2018, he seemed on course for big things, becoming the Conservative shadow cabinet member for children and family issues. In 2022, with his party on the wane locally and nationally, Morrall was re-elected with a 10% rise in his vote share.
This trajectory was upended in December 2023, when Morrall was arrested and charged with the stalking and harassment of an ex-girlfriend, triggering an immediate suspension of his Conservative party membership, and loss of the whip. At first Morrall “den[ied] all claims”.
But in January 2024, at Birmingham Magistrates Court Morrall admitted a single charge of pursuing a course of conduct that amounted to harassment of his ex. The court heard that Morrall and the woman began their relationship after meeting at a Commonwealth Games event in July 2022, but it mostly was conducted in “secret” because her mother and sister “disapproved” of the councillor, due to an “incident" that occurred at her family home.
In Conservative party documents seen by The Dispatch, relating to Morrall’s suspension, it was claimed this animosity was because the woman was from a “Labour family”.
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After a pregnancy scare in November 2022, the woman told Morrall she wanted to cut ties, make a “fresh start”, her prosecutor said. But Morall kept calling her for weeks, from different numbers, despite a lack of response. He also left letters and gifts. The woman claimed she became “paranoid” he would turn up wherever she went. She lost weight and struggled with insomnia, reported her prosecutor in court.
Morrall was sentenced to a 12 month community order, including taking part in 15 rehabilitation days and carrying out 80 hours of unpaid community work. He was also ordered to pay a total of £614 in court costs and a surcharge.
During mitigation, he said he was “proud of being a Conservative councillor in my area” and hoped to return to the party. Despite urgings to resign from his position on the council, including by Labour MP Jess Phillips, Morrall resisted.
‘They wanted to destroy my career’
When The Dispatch began digging into rumours that Morrall had been quietly reinstated to the Conservative party, we, obviously, started by contacting the man at the centre of the case.
I sent over an email, politely enquiring if the Conservatives had “confirmed and accepted a reinstatement” of Morrall into the party, and asking the councillor to give me a ring. He did so, but I wasn’t prepared for the conversation that followed.
